Music:
George Frederic Handel—Water Music
Mission Study:
1. Window on the World: Madagascar
2. WotW: Zulus
3. WotW; Animism
4. WotW: Hinduism
5. WotW: Islam
Poems:
It’s About Time—Lee Bennett Hopkins
Science:
Scientists and Inventors
Nonfiction Read Alouds:
Trial by Ice; A Photobiography of Sir Ernest Shackleton–Kostyol
Fiction Read Alouds:
And the Word Came With Power–Shetler
Ice Drift–Taylor. I’m looking forward to reading this Arctic adventure story with the urchins. Taylor is also the author of The Cay, a wonderful story about adventure and racial reconciliation and intergenerational friendship that takes place on a Caribbean island.
Picture Books:
Antarctica—Bagley
Anarctic Ice—Mastro and Wu
Little Penguin—Benson We read this picture book about a three year old Adelie penguin.
Little Penguin’s Tale—Wood Betsy-Bee read this story to me and to Z-baby.
Take a Trip to the Antarctic—Lye
Little Polar Bear and the Brave Little Hare—de Beer Betsy-Bee read this easy reader to me, too. It’s a simple story about a polar bear who gets trapped in an arctic research station, and his friend the snow hare who rescues him.
Elementary Readers:
Julie of the Wolves—George
Woodsong—Paulsen. Karate Kid is reading this adventure/nature story.
Trapped in Ice—Walters
How Did We Find Out About Antarctica—Asimov
Amazing Penguins and Other Polar Creatures—Johnson
Torches of Joy—Dekker. Brown Bear Daughter is reading this missionary story about the Dani tribe and missions in the South Pacific.
Other Books:
Wheeler, Opal. Handel at the Court of Kings. Again, I wish I could find this series of biographies of famous composers at my library or at a used bookstore.
Movies:
Shackleton. Actually, we watched this dramatizatization of the Shackleton expedition to the Antarctic on Friday night, and it was great. Kenneth Branagh made a convincingly strong explorer/leader, and we learned a lot about the dangers and beauties of the Antarctic and about the courage of some of the men who explored it. There was a subplot about two women in Sir Ernest Shackleton’s life, one his wife and the other his mistress, I suppose. I couldn’t figure out what having both of them in drama added to the story, nor did I even figure out who the second woman was until three-fourths of the way through the movie. Why, oh why, do film makers add in such extraneous stuff and confuse the issues?
Sherry:
Mr., Master, and I *loved* Shackleton! We watched it about a year ago, I think, and thought it was wonderful — educational and entertaining; a lovely way to spend family film night.
RE: The “romance” — The M-mv men maintain that those personal aspects of Shackleton’s life were tossed in as bones for the women in the (potential) viewership. “Sorry, Mom,” Master remarked, “but that’s just the way the world works: Folks think the men need adventure and the women need the ‘touchy-feely’ whatnot.”
Heh, heh, heh.
Related aside: In one of last week’s column’s Steinberg covered the closing of the last independent bookstore in the Loop — Brent’s. The owner named Lansing’s Endurance as the reason he wanted to be a bookseller.
Another related aside: Several years ago, the Field Museum (or was it the Museum of Science and Industry?) hosted a modest exhibition of photographs from the Shackleton expedition. Remarkable stuff.
Best regards.
Melissa
Erm, “column’s”? I must need a snack. Or another cup of coffee.
*Great* resources, Sherry! It’s a geography year around our house, and I know I’ll pick up some new ideas here … thanks!
Please take a look at my award-winning and very very popular book for middle grade readers on Shackleton, called Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World. You can see the reviews and reader comments at Amazon.